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August 28, 2014

I’m well-noted for being
an optimist, but sometimes it’s pretty hard.
That’s to be expected, sadly. Negativity is part and parcel of the World
Wide Web these days, and with good reason: it’s a place where fans -- where
those who care deeply about the things they love -- find out on a regular basis
that something bad is about to go down. I try to counteract that here,
but the woes of the video game industry and its mounting failures means that a
lot of times, I have to get negative, too.

So you know what? It’s time to do something different. I want this to be a happy place, and I can
think of one surefire way to do that: paying tribute to my mom. Today’s her birthday, after all, and she’s
such a great person that I HAVE to give her the praise she deserves. I don’t do that enough, but that’s to be
expected when you’re about as good with people as trying to spell the alphabet
backwards…while on fire. (As evidenced
by that curiously-morbid joke.) And
seeing as how I have yet to encounter a greeting card that can cram several
thousand words onto a folded piece of paper, this will have to do.

So gather ‘round. Have a seat.
Because I’m going to wish my mom a happy birthday the only way anyone
can: by giving 100% irrefutable proof that she’s the best in the universe.

It would be 110%, but
doing that would require making the post’s title in all caps. And as per The Rules of the Internet, that
would put the post's credibility in danger.

August 25, 2014

Video games may be an
art form, but it’s hard to separate them from the mechanical
underpinnings. Yeah, that’s probably
true of every art form, but given that games are built on technology, it’s more
than a little pronounced. So while in a
lot of ways, it’s easy to understand why there are so many shooters (even if
you’re not willing to welcome them): the mechanics are the simplest way to
create a relationship between a real player and a virtual world. Take aim, pull a trigger button, and things
happen. It’s a hard formula to screw up,
even if it is less than preferable to others.

I’m not even going to
pretend like I know everything/anything about shooters, but I can do something like that for fighting
games. Even if you don’t have any skill
with them, it only takes a glance to realize that there are systems and
particulars that go into each one, making them different across the board. True, there are lessons and concepts that
carry over from game-to-game, but Street
Fighter 4 is not the same game as, say, Street
Fighter X Tekken.

There are surface-level
elements, like those unique systems; there are deeper elements, like
preparation and tactics; there are elements that you have to learn on the fly,
going from one match to another (someday I’ll learn how to fight Chun-Li) --
and then there’s the super-deep stuff like frame data, proration, and
more. Fighters may have seen a
renaissance over the past half-decade or so, but that’s partly because they’ve
got the depth -- at every level -- that can satisfy a player. It’s what makes fighters one of the purest
game genres out there.

I bring all this up
because I think that’s part of the appeal of Wolfenstein: The New Order. And
it’s part of the reason why it’s not only the best game I’ve looked at for the
ShootStravaganza, but maybe one of the best next-gen games so far…even though
that doesn’t really mean very much at this stage, but whatever.

August 18, 2014

So you know what I just
realized? All the games that are going
to pop in for the ShootStravaganza are PS4 games. Fancy that.

The way things are
looking now, I’m not exactly what you’d call excited about the next (technically current) generation of games. I’m on record here on Cross-Up of being
genuinely worried about what the PS4 and Xbox One would bring, and now that
they’re getting dangerously close to the one-year mark, I can say that they’re
not the doombringers that most would have expected. Now, mediocrity-bringers,
on the other hand? THAT’S something they
can do. For someone who’s getting into
games for the first time with something like Infamous: Second Son, they’ll be fine. But for someone like me, who’s played the
other, better Infamous games? It’s a step down. And the less said about Watch Dogs, the better.

It doesn’t say good
things about the state of a console or a game industry when the most compelling
argument to even turn the blasted new box are games that not only DON’T take
full advantage of the technology, but could conceivably appear on the earlier consoles…not
to mention they were likely made for a fraction of the price, yet ended up
better regardless. In all fairness to
the PS4 (and the Xbone, to a lesser extent), I’m going to say what I’ve been
saying for a while: someday, they’re both going to get the games that justify
their existence. Someday, they’re going
to be consoles worth owning. Someday, they’re
going to make big contributions to the gaming canon.

August 14, 2014

There was a time when I
sat down for a marathon of episodes -- my first exposure to the show as a wee
little Voltech. Believe it or not, I was
excited for them. And then I actually
sat down and watched them, and I pretty much went “Ehhhhhhhhhhh…this is kinda
garbage.” I guess I just didn’t have the
artistic sensibilities for it yet.

But those sensibilities
never did develop. Even with the myriad
spinoffs and alternate versions -- there was one about catching thirteen
ghosts, which gave the series a built-in END button -- I never found myself
treating the franchise as anything more than a diversion. Just some background noise to play, or a
last-ditch effort to find something on TV.
Still, Scooby-Doo has long
since found both its legs and its audience, and it doesn’t matter if I’m not a
member of it -- although, as it turns out, I actually think the recent Mysteries Incorporated show is pretty
good. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it,
but I could see myself watching that more than anything else.

The reason I bring up Scooby-Doo is because it’s proof of an
obvious truth: the past is not
sacrosanct. Just because it’s from
yesteryear doesn’t automatically make it flawless and worthy of some slot in
the hall of fame. It can qualify, sure, but there’s no reason
why the old should get a seat on a golden throne just because it has a familiar
name.

August 11, 2014

This should go without
saying, but you should never take anything I say too seriously.

Holding up someone’s
words and opinions as gospel is pretty dangerous, because A) it prevents you
from thinking for yourself, B) it hands over a lot of power to some nigh-unseen
force, and C) it would imply that the deliverer of gospel is flawless. They’re not.
And I’m not. I try to be as fair
as I can, and look past my biases. If I
can’t -- which is often, I’d bet -- then I’ll at least try my hardest to
support my reasoning…even if that reasoning is just a way to justify shutting
my eyes and covering my ears.

I just thought I’d make
all that clear up-front, because this is actually the second post on Destiny that I’ve done. Granted the
first was focused more on the business side of the equation, the dangerous
precedent at play, and the potential threat to the gaming canon vis a vis
another big push toward mediocrity, but…uh…I don’t have a positive way to end
this sentence. So I’ll just go ahead and
say that Destiny was, at the time,
innocent until proven guilty. Until
gamers in droves -- myself included -- got to try the game, making any snap
judgments would’ve made anyone who slammed the game look like a fool.

But that’s fine. Because now that the beta is over and done, I
get to slam the game all I want.

August 7, 2014

So my brother wants to
go see the new Ninja Turtles movie,
and I now have a sudden urge to find the largest, heaviest item I can carry so
I can introduce him to it. In the
percussive sense.

I probably shouldn’t be
too surprised, seeing as how he’s the same person who caused me to watch the
unthinkably awful RoboCop reboot. I guess some people never learn, but I
figured it was worth another shot. So I
asked him: “If you want to see the Turtles, then why don’t you just watch the
cartoons?” His answer was that the
upcoming movie was new. And I guess that
means it’s…better, somehow? In which
case, I’d
point his attention elsewhere.

Well, it could be
good. But I have my doubts (for any
number of reasons). Setting aside the
miserable fate that may await anyone who has even a passing interest in cinema,
I can’t help but think back to a statement made by Michael Swaim of Cracked,
and a sort of “understood truth” about the Turtles, or characters in general:
whichever one is your favorite says a LOT about your personality. I like Leonardo, for example, and if you’re
familiar with the stuff I’ve said here on Cross-Up, this should be no surprise
to you. But beyond that, the important
thing is that by identifying deeply with a character, your overall enjoyment of
the story is practically destined to increase.

I say all of this
because it applies to Guardians of the
Galaxy. Because not only is it a
good, good, good, good, good movie, but your enjoyment will inevitably
increase…because by movie’s end, you WILL have a favorite. Guaranteed.

August 4, 2014

Not too long ago, I took
to Reddit’s Truegaming section to pose a question: what kind of lasting effect
have guns had on video games? I think
it’s a legitimate question, considering how you pretty much can’t have a game
these days without guns. Okay, maybe not
every game has guns (Tokyo Jungle comes
to mind, and is stronger because of it), but there are ENOUGH games full of
guns to give pause. It really doesn’t
say good things about the state of the industry when I read a GameInformer article about Gearbox’s
upcoming game Battleborn, and the
first paragraph talks about how the dev established itself as a FPS ace with Halo: Combat Evolved. And in that very paragraph, it goes on to say
that Gearbox left its comfort zone by making Borderlands…another FPS, only with RPG elements, sort of. And then their new game is -- hold on to
something -- another FPS. Only
different! Somehow.

I’ve
gone on about this before, but it bears repeating: guns are a useful tool
in-universe and out of it, but they can be limiting in the very same
method. Think about it; a character’s
weapon of choice/fighting style says a lot about their personalities, and in a
video game it can decide (and jazz up) the mechanics. Or, to put it a different way, compare a
handful of shooters to a handful of fighting games. There are basic principles that carry over
from, say, Street Fighter to BlazBlue, but the varying characters,
styles, and mechanics make each fighting game a whole different beast. Conversely, playing one shooter gives you
nearly everything you need to succeed in another. There are nuances that set them apart, yes,
but there’s only so much you can do in terms of deviation.

So the question that’s
been on my mind, now more than ever, is simple: what makes a good shooter? And I intend to find out.